Gate 36 ⌇ The Gate of Crisis

When you come to the first line, you come to the foundation and the line of introspection. This more than anything else - like all first lines. If you look at them, they are very clear about describing the intrinsic nature of the gate. Above the lines it says, The rule of cycles in which decline is a natural but not enduring stage. Decline in this sense is the limitation of the inexperience. After all, these people are of enormous value to us. On the logical side, we see that we cannot have solutions without experimentation. Here, we cannot make sense out of life unless we’ve had enough experience. It is all about getting the experience. It is impersonal and sometimes it can be very painful, but it is part of our human way. 

The first line is called ‘Resistance.’ Mars exalted, The energy and determination to persevere in the face of opposition.  The opposition is the limitation. They are looking for the 35. Jupiter in detriment, An over-principled resistance that rather than being selective in resistance and thus less at risk, will maintain normal patterns and incur opposition.  Here in the Book of Letters, you can see how it moves both sides. On one side you have, The emotional power to handle crisis. The 36th gate is about that. These people always handle their crisis. It is the other that has problems with the crisis. They both have a crisis, but the 36th gate they cruise through it, and the other person has a shattering experience. It is very good for them, by the way, it is an ancient old end of the wheel gate. It carries a lot of wisdom in that experience. So every time you get shattered in crisis, there is something to be learned. There is a new birth that can take place. 

By the very nature of the hexagram they are equipped to handle the crisis, but on the other side, A resistance to change that will always bring crisis. On the other side they realize how much that crisis causes havoc. The people with the 36th gate that are part of my life, they are so aware of how much crisis they brought. They know that. There is a part of them that says "I really did not have to do this thing, because I am sure that it will lead to problems. Better I leave this." You can’t do that until you have reached your midlife point. There are only few exceptions. After all, the 35/36 is a mirror of the 16/48, and they are both about talent and talent takes time. In the logical process it takes repetition and depth, and in the abstract process it takes a great deal of experience and fortitude to survive the crises and keep on going on in the experiential way. The thing is that slowly in their life they begin to recognize that not only do they go through crisis, but they can generate a great deal of crisis. Later in life they become much more selective. This is maturing process that is built into this hexagram. 

Remember, that it is the last hexagram in the wheel before you come to the 25, the alpha and the omega. It is both Pisces and Aries. So the 36 is completing a process. Without going through crisis and without getting to the experience, we do not get to the next experience. We do not start again in the wheel, being innocent. The 36.6 will lead to the 25.1, to the beginning of an initiating process, to the innocence, to the start of a new cycle. It is a very important energy. It simply means that there are wounded ones along the way.

When you come to the second line, you come to the line of projection. These people can be quite something. They are not introspective. They can come up to you and out of the blue they say the most outrageous things. "I think that you need a good love affair." They are really quite accurate in all that. It is very uncomfortable to have them explode on you in their wave. ‘Support.’ Assistance to others in times of decline. They really are. This is not to be misunderstood. They are of enormous value, but they do cause havoc. They just project out that quality exactly at the moment where you really do need it. They can generate a terrible crisis in that moment. They are very good in bringing out crisis in other people, which is quite healing. 

Neptune exalted, The application of imagination to schemes which benefit others. Here in the Book of Letters it says, Feelings that can benefit others in times of crisis. Otherwise, they are a pain in the neck. In times of crisis, they are perfect. They will get it out of you. You will go through that experience and you will get it. They know that you need the experience. Even if you don’t, they know. That is the whole thing to understand about this gate. The nature of this gate can be seen in the ‘Espionage’ line. They have a sense of, "Aha, they need it." Here in the second line, this is the beginning of this power, to recognize the moment to bring that force into somebody’s life. By the way, at the same time they get their experience. They are great in initiating that crisis so that they can get the experience. "I knew that they needed it." It is not personal, but it can be deeply beneficial. This is the nature of crisis. The whole abstract process is about beginnings and middles and ends, and crisis is just the path along the way. 

When you get to the other side, Moon in detriment, The more practical and individual assistance but only when unavoidable and not as a general principal.  That is, Selective assistance in times of crisis. They don’t always do it. They don’t always get you at that moment. Sometimes that is very cruel and brings its own crisis. Crisis is necessary for us to develop our experience, and the moment we stop seeing crisis as something that is bad instead of seeing it as something exciting. It is all about making life exciting. I have a lot of 35/36 people in my life. They are hilarious. They need that excitement. They have to have it. For them a crisis is great. They crank it up to a higher level and everybody is blowing up around them and they are fine afterwards. They tell others "You all needed that. You deserved it. If I did not tell you, somebody else would."

The 3rd line, the upper part of the lower trigram, is a line of adaptation. It is called ‘Transition.’ It says, The point at which decline has exhausted its power. These people are very different from the second line people who can generate the crisis exactly in the moment and the crisis really is for the other person. By the time you get to the third line you are interested in the recognition that you have to deal with what is on the other side of the channel. What happens to 36.3 people is that they always get the big crisis. The others get a little crisis and they get the big one. In the second line it is the other way around. The third line people have to deal with the phenomena of the change that takes place. There are the ones who really meet the change which affects them more deeply than it affects the other. Remember, that this channel is social in its very nature like all collective channels. Therefore this is a social enterprise of sharing. In that sharing they are the ones that have difficulties with the change that takes place. Pluto exalted, The ability to establish a new order out of the ashes of the old. That means that the change deeply affects them. What they thought they were, what they thought that they felt, they get the crisis because suddenly they realize that in the adaptation to the other, something totally different has happened to them in their experience. Out of that they have a whole new process to go through. 

Jupiter in detriment, The tendency in renewal to try to assimilate the remains of the old order into the new with the risk that it may rise against the new order once it has regained its strength. These people did not really want that change, they only wanted the experience and they got something else with it.  When you make love to someone and they get pregnant - you did not want all that. You just wanted the experience and all of a sudden they have to deal with it and they end up with the crisis. This is something to keep in mind about the nature of the third line. Here in the Book of Letters, The emotional depth to endure crisis and embrace change. The change will always come for these people. They are forced to adapt. Or, The embrace of the change but with feelings that won’t let go of the past.  Resisting the nature of the change. You can hear these people say, "I wish I hadn’t done that. Why did they make me do it?"

We come to the fourth line and we begin the process of the upper trigram. The fourth line is about externalization which has a narrow field to it. It is fixed, it has this one- pointedness about its nature. The moment that you get into the upper trigram, you get into the social context. After all, we have a collective circuit here which is social by its very nature. Its keynote is to share and by the time you get to the upper trigram, what you are looking towards is the other side. The fourth line is about mastering the nature of the other. This line is deeply perceptive of the other. They are interested in getting their change and in fulfilling their experience, and their one- pointedness is that they can only do that by knowing the other. That knowing of the other can be beneficial or detrimental. It depends on the perspective, whether you are the spy or you are the victim of the spy. You notice, by the way, that the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines have Pluto exalted. 

This line is called ‘Espionage.’ The ability to prepare for and anticipate decline through the accumulation of secret or privileged information. I have met so many people that have astrological background who are deeply interested in the patterns of others, working that out exactly what they are. In the Book of Letters, The realization that knowledge, both covert and esoteric, is necessary if one is to be prepared for crisis and change.  What happens to these people is that their crisis is that they are always busy looking at others and not seeing themselves. They get their crisis when they have to see their own mirror. But they have a real gift of looking into the other. Here you find the Moon in detriment, The tendency in recognizing the strength of the opposition to accept the inevitability of decline and rather than resist, to offer one’s services to guarantee survival. The double agent.  This is where their gift pays off in black mail or in fees. Crisis knowledge that is available to others for a price. That price can be money or a piece of flesh. It depends on the circumstances. The one-pointedness of the line is that this is all about knowing the other.  Anybody that comes to me with this line, the first thing that I tell them is,  “You better learn about other people, to understand how they operate. While you are doing that, don’t forget to learn about yourself. You save yourself an enormous crisis that way."

Fifth line, universalization: We get to the sum total of the nature of this. It is called ‘The Underground.’ Pluto exalted, Perfected survival regardless of conditions. These people will get their experience, and they will survive it. That does not mean anything about others. They are here to get their experience. When they are really of value for others is when they have been through enough experiences. Immunity to crisis as both generator and survivor. In other words, no matter what their situation is they can always move from inexperience to experience and always will, and damn the consequences. They are out there to get their experience. This is nature of what this hexagram is about. 

When you get to the other side, Mercury in detriment. A nervousness that can lead to self-betrayal.  They can get very nervous because they know that the crisis is coming. They can feel it coming and sometimes they can let it go without getting their opportunity to go through it, because what they want is the experience at the other end. By the way, these people end up being either fascinating or deeply boring. If they do not have an interesting life, what they tell you over and over again will drive you crazy. Self-betraying nervousness in times of crisis. They know when the crisis is coming, they want to participate in the crisis  and sometimes the excitement is too much for them, they let it out.  When they do so, my advice to these people is, "Don’t take a contraband across borders." That is a metaphor for many things. These people are probably the most honest people who create crisis. Sometimes their honesty gets them into trouble. They are the kind of people that will confess to someone and get themselves into trouble and have a crisis. They are inherently honest in that.

Now, we get to the 6th line, the line of transition, the top of the house. The 36.6 is looking towards the 25.1. That is the next hexagram, the next line. The 25.1 is about selfless and motiveless action. All of this is deeply manipulative. This is depth, after all, we are looking at the mirror of the 48. It is an emotional depth and understanding of the other operating in the wave, but it is still an emotional grasp of the other and because of that, there is so much built into the crisis that looks like it is manipulative. What they are looking for in the end is action that is without motive. "I don’t have to do this to get that." The 35/36 is the channel of expectations. If I do this and this, I will get that. Then you get to that and you realize "shit, I have to start again,” and on and on. This is an ongoing process. Expectation leads to frustration. These people can get deeply disturbed by the fact that life does not reward you that way. You have to get out of the expectation business. This line is called ‘Justice’ (just is). The inevitable survival of right. Change is the only thing that endures. The 32nd hexagram tells us that. To go from inexperience to experience is the human way. This is correct. Sixth lines are always looking for something else. This is looking far beyond the nature of the experience. It is looking for what in essence  all of this is bringing out in terms of the other side. What does the experience or the change lead to? 

Sixth lines can be depressive. These people have seen it all before and they are the ones that are least likely to jump at experiences. Like the 59.6, the ‘One Night Stand,’ they can end up being celibate because they do not get the opportunity to see something that is transcendent, transitional for them. The next gate, the 25.1, is a spiritual gate. It is a mystical potential. This is where universal love starts. So they are looking for something far beyond that. Jupiter exalted, The knowledge and attendant faith that the powers of darkness eventually destroy themselves. “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” Saturn in detriment, A profound sorrow and cynicism that is not diminished by the understanding that darkness is self-annihilating. Darkness is ignorance. Madness looms as long as there is ignorance. Ignorance is the great darkness. Human beings need to experience to make sense of what it is to be. We need the evidence. Not everything can be evidenced through the formula of the logic process. We need human experience. We need to know what it is like to have to go through and do things. 

In the Book of Letters, The correctness of crisis when it arises out of pure feelings.  As long as the feelings are not pure, they will avoid the crisis. 36.6 people are not the kind of people that you associate with crisis. When they do have them, they are huge. They are not crisis people because they are not turned on by any old experience. There is always this sense of  “what else is there.” In the detriment, The sorrow or cynicism that comes with seeing that despite the correctness of the feelings, there is always crisis.  The deepest crisis is that the crisis goes nowhere. That the wheel keeps on turning, that the expectation is never fulfilled. Deep inside they know that. What they are saying is,  “What is the sense of just going through this again? Why can’t there be something different?" 

One of the great jokes that you will notice in the lines through the circuits, particularly in the collective, is that all the sixth lines in the logic want to be abstract and all the sixth lines of the abstract want to be logical. The logic has this tendency to say in the end, "Does this make sense?" and the abstract has the tendency to say, "Is it really true? It is a fact?"  It is where they meet. The collective process is inside of us. We need all of those elements together. This sixth line can get very depressed due to its very nature: To be able to go through change to evolve, to continue this human process. They are the people that are the strongest believers and the strongest desirers of the world coming to an end. They stand up and say, “I hope it will all come to an end." I know a number of people who have that line, and when Jupiter was struck by the comet Shoemaker Levy, they had this big grin on their faces. "Oh, I hope it will come to an end."